Mademoiselle Treves kept her word, and wherever the fun was at its height she was invariably the centre of it.  The shy children crowded about her.  She seemed to possess a special charm for them.

Gwen was delighted, and was obviously enjoying herself to the utmost.  In the absence of her bete noire whom she had courageously omitted to invite, she rejoiced to see that her mother was being unusually gracious to her beloved Admiral, who was as merry as a schoolboy in consequence.

She was shrewdly aware, however, that the welcome change was but temporary.  Incomprehensible though it was to Gwen, she knew that Major Coningsby’s power over her gay and frivolous young mother was absolute.  He ruled her with a rod of iron, and Lady Emberdale actually enjoyed his tyranny.  The rough court he paid her served to turn her head completely, and she never attempted to resist his influence.

It was all very distasteful to Gwen, who hated the man with the whole force of her nature.  She was thankful to feel that Carey was enlisted on her side.  She looked upon him as a tower of strength, and, forebodings notwithstanding, she was able to throw herself heart and soul into the evening’s festivities, and to beam delightedly upon her cousin as she walked behind him with Charlie to the supper room.

Carey was escorting the French governess.  He found a comfortable corner for her in the thronged room at a table laid for two.

“I am bearing in mind your promise to stand by till twelve o’clock,” he said.  “It’s the only thing that keeps me going, for I have a powerful longing to remove my mask in defiance of orders.  It feels like a porous plaster.  I shall only hold out till midnight with your gallant assistance.”

He stooped with the words to pick up her fan which she had dropped.  He was obliged to use his left hand, and he knew that she gave a quick start at sight of it.  But she spoke instantly and he admired her ready self-control.

“It was rather a rash promise, I am afraid.”

Her voice sounded half shy and wholly sweet, and again he was caught by that elusive quality about her that had puzzled him before.  It was stronger than ever, so strong that he felt for a moment on the verge of discovery.  But yet again it baffled him, making him all the more determined to pursue it to its source.

“You’re not going to cry off?” he said, with a smile.

He saw her flush behind her mask.

“Only with your permission,” she answered.

He heard the note of pleading in her voice, but he would not notice it.

“Oh, I can’t let you off!” he said lightly.  “Gwen would never forgive me.  Besides, I don’t want to.”

She said no more, probably realising that he meant to have his way.  They talked upon indifferent topics in the midst of the general buzz of merriment till, supper over, they separated.

“I shall come for that midnight dance,” were Carey’s last words, as he bowed and left her.